2018 SLEEPERS
                                                      Part 3


Here’s another nice handful of 2018 films that didn’t get noticed much, but I think are pretty good. I hope you can find one or two you would like to watch.
When most of us think back to our school days, Junior High doesn’t really stand out as something we would like to revisit. That is one reason that Eighth Grade is so winning. Unknown Elsie Fisher acts like she’s been there. She plays introverted Kayla Day, and she broke my heart. She posts advice to girls on a blog nobody watches, and longs to belong somewhere. Her helicopter Dad is no help at all. Kayla is invited to a pool party by a very popular girl. When she gets to the party, the really mean little hostess lets drop that her mother made her invite Kayla. Oh lord, I would hate to be 13 again! And this film sort of brings it all back.
Denzel Washington has played many parts, all quite well. He makes an excellent vigilante in Equalizer 2. I generally disparage sequels, but this one is really better than the original. I guess this is a guilty pleasure, but okay, I just love watching Denzel dispatch of all sorts of low life. In this film, he is especially after the thugs who killed his friend and colleague Susan Plummer (well played by Melissa Leo). But that’s only one branch of a forest of evil trees to be chopped down. The action sequences are really good. 
Love, Simon is a teenage comedy-drama that is sweet and believable. Simon is gay. He is being blackmailed by a fellow student who threatens to out him to the whole school. At the same time Simon is desperately trying to find the gay guy he discovers and corresponds with on social media. The plot gets really sticky with sub-stories about Simon’s sister being sought by another boy, and Simon’s efforts to fit in and to deal with his sexual identity. But Nick Robinson will win your admiration and affection regardless of your particular feeling toward gays. 
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society has a wonderful title and an equally wonderful story. During the German occupation of the British island of Guernsey, some of the residents get around the curfew by telling the German soldiers they are attending the Society. And they actually are. Lily James plays author Juliet Ashton who learns of the story and goes to the island to write a book about it. She is not encouraged by the locals. Then it gets complicated. So the film is not as good as the book- what a surprise! It’s still pretty good.
The Hate U Give is right out of today’s headlines. Starr Carter attends a mostly white school in fictional Garden Heights. Her friend Khalil is driving her home from a party when they are stopped by a white policeman. When Khalil reaches across the seat and picks up a hairbrush, the office shoots and kills him. For a long time Starr’s family urges her to remain silent about what she saw, but she eventually goes public about the shooting. 
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.